Dinara Safina to be No.1 as of Sony Ericsson Championships

This is hilarious. Dinara Safina will be No.1 during the Sony Ericsson Championships, returning to the top spot after Serena Williams took it over this week.

Last year’s Sony Ericsson Championships points will come off the Monday of this year’s Sony Ericsson Championships points, which will make Safina 155 points ahead of Williams.

Having in mind all the pressure and criticism Safina had to face for not living up to the role of being the No.1 in the eyes of many, funnily, the Russian is now seen as being in an unfortunate situation. I love the following remarks made at tennis blog called Forty Deuce.

Commentator LadyRain said:

Aww. Poor Dina. All this after she worked so hard to not be number one. She really can’t catch a break.

Commentator TheSkinny said:

Now imagine, she ends the year No.1 *shock* That would guarantee for an off-season full of trash talking!

29 thoughts on “Dinara Safina to be No.1 as of Sony Ericsson Championships”

Not sure if you all caught the latest gossip…Serena may be banned from the Aussie in 2010. *Gasp* for posing “nude” in ESPN. Well, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Yes, she should have been punished for her outburst at that USO (more than just a fine), however; a ban; that’s a bit extreme. Though I’m glad the ITF is tightening their belts.

if what you’re saying is true. Serena being punished for posing nude for ESPN. What about Harkleroad being punished for posing for Playboy, as their main centerfold in an issue last year. Grant she’s not on the tour right now.

I’d hope so, because that seems a bit harsh and definitely unfair. Plus, she wasn’t the only famous athlete who did the shoot.

On another note, this fluctuation is killing me. I wish Justine had never retired-at least we might have had more stability. I guess Serena can’t blame anyone but herself for her poor performance and her inability to consolidate being #1. (not including the points system)

I have only heard that Serena would be punished because of her outburst at the USO. I have been reading back and forth regarding the issue in various sites like Tennis.com or ESPN.com and that is what I understand. I dont’ think they can control a person’s life outside tennis. I think Serena should have put all she had into Beijing and won the title IF she wanted to consolidate #1. Even during the summer she could have seen every match as a major and won something if she is the greatest player. I am NOT being anti-Serena, but the whole subject is starting to get ludicrous. Maybe both players can think about the whole issue during their down time in December and figure out how they want to approach the next year. Or maybe someone else can emerge, grab hold of the situation and keep going.

I also wanted to say that there is a place on the SE WTA page that shows statistics about what points are coming off when etc. If you go to sonyericssonwtatour.com and go to the homepage, at the very bottom where there are items in small print, you will see “press center”. Under that is “notes and netcords”. If you click on that it will take you to a page where you click on the week you want. Then it will send you to a PDF page. As you scroll down towards the end, there are the rankings and over to the right of the person’s name it tells what points have been added and what points are coming off next week. The website used to make this more visible in their old site but then changed it.

I’d perfer the rankings to switch to the race ranks. That way, they can calculate the mean, and then a fair, and GOOD player would be current world number 1. Would Dinara even be in the top ten? Sorry if you can understand me, my english is my second language

Nikia, If I understand you correctly, the WTA uses the race ranks for DOHA and the race ranks indicate what a player does for the calendar year such as 2009, 2008 etc. For 2009, Dinara as of tonight OCt 14, is number 1 with 7731 race points and Serena has 7576 race points.

Oh, really. Thank you for telling me. I suppose she has had a really good start year, and at wimbledon. These past few months have been no good for the russian. I love Serena. Race ranks make more sense i think. Thank you very much Sunny

Nikita, the race points are on the WTA website sonyericssonwtatour.com Then look at “Rankings” on the bar towards the top. From “Rankings” choose “Race to Sony Ericsson Champs-Singles” and that gives you the race points. You are right, Dinara had a good start through Wimbledon and Portoroz right after. Then she couldn’t play well enough to defend her points during the summer and fall season. I think sometimes we must accept that the Safina-Serena thing is just one of those things that doesn’t happen that often and eventually the rankings will settle down.

No, this is nost a ban for her outburst at the US Open. According to an article at blacknews.com, Serena may be banned for posing nude at ESPN. I too thought about Harkleroad posing nude for Playboy and the nude shots of Verdasco and others. Will this be the ITF shot at getting Serena?

I think Dinara deserves the ranking, she was more consistent player than Serena as she put effort into her game throughout all of the seasons not just at 4 big tournaments. In fact, that’s what is proven by the difference in their lead. Serena’s lead over Safi : 5 points (wooow…) Safi’s lead over Serena: 155 point (a “bit” more, eh?) The journalists are just being ridiculous they treat her as a crap player even though she is very talented the only issue is her dealing with a lot of pressure put on her. I wonder what Serena would do if she got put down at every presser after a lost match. I guess she’d write another book about her personal journey…

Maybe she will write another book. But one thing is for sure, Marine; she will not bow down under the pressure. She hasn’t yet with all the pressure she had from the outburst at the US Open (she went and got a lawyer to deal with the ITF) and from all the negative publicity of ignoring Indian Wells, or the from the negativity she receives from the pressers when she doesn’t give credit to Dinara or any one else. I too, think Dinara deserved the #1 ranking when she had it and I felt terrible for her every time she couldn’t push pass a player to win a slam. She will probably have the #1 title again in a week or two, if Serena is not allowed to play at the YEC or anywhere else for the next year. How will she handle it then? I am sure both of us would love to talk to her and tell her to play HER game, and not to try to out bash any one else. Anyway, Serena is my girl, so is Venus, Dinara, Maria, etc. I just like tennis. And tennis echelon loves money, so Serena will probably not be suspended. So let’s just see who comes out on top. Dinara/Serena/Justine/Kim/Maria?

Well, it is common sense she got a lawyer,she’ll need a good one I have to say. I think even though she is a big name, she is not bulletproof. Even McEnroe earned a few suspensions and was fined so I think the history will repeat itself in her case,too and rightly so. Regards negative publicity of Serena, well it’s deserved, if she showed more respect to other players she wouldn’t have it. And the media gave her a big confidence boost prior to the Open which you cannot say about Safina, who was criticized even after she won a match! Dinara needs to make some major changes, first should be firing her moronic coach who cannot support at all. I think tennis is not just about the money, it is also about good sport and if USTA and ITF does not understand that, well, too bad for them.

Really? Nuria Llagostera Vives has posed? I never knew that. It’s kinda surprising given that she’s not high-profile. 😛

I don’t think Serena should be banned from any tournaments. While I do agree that her behaviour was unacceptable, she has already been fined and she has apologised so really it should all be left in the past where it belongs.

I hope that Safina will win in Doha because then she would have something to say that she is worthy of being number one and it might FINALLY give some stability to the tour. Whether that will happen or not, I really don’t know.

I am surprised tha WTA is making such a fuss because of the photos rather than because of the tirade. Especially as she did nude shoots before and nobody was bothered. Photoshoots does not matter to me, it is in fact their personal business if they don’t mind these kind of things. I think WTA is being strangely conservative here.

According to the Hindustan Times, tennis’ #1 player Serena Williams has posed nude for this month’s special Body issue of ESPN Magazine. While fans are loving the open stance of the tennis ace, the International Tennis Federation is not amused. The ITA is contemplating stripping the world no. 1 of her berth in the 2010 Australian Open. Further, she can be banned and fined $500,000. Just a month ago, Serena was fined $10,000 for threatening a line judge at the US Open.

CONTINUE READING

Reaction:

In 2007, Serena posed nude for Jane Magazine in a more revealing shot than the one above in ESPN the Magazine “The Body” Issue and wasn’t up for suspension or a fine then, why now?

As soon as Serena scares a referee and becomes #1 in the world, all of a sudden people want suspend her from the 2010 Australian Open and fine her $500,000 for a photo in a sports magazine, UNBELIVABLE!!!

Its not like she’s posing for Playboy or Hustler, it’s ESPN, a sports magazine, which is what she does for a living, play SPORTS!!! They must need money, want someone else to win or just jealous they don’t have the body, abilities and intelligence she has, because this is absolutely ridiculous. They may even be scared she would scare an Australian Open referee, who knows.

My biggest issue and question is why now, when she’s been doing these photo shoots for years now?